there from the adjoining apartment some hours after death. It was the
only wound discovered on the body, and having probed it, he had found
and extracted the bullet which he now handed to the jury. It was lying
in the brain, having entered at the base of the skull, passed obliquely
upward, and at once struck the _medulla oblongata,_ causing
instant death. The fact of the ball having entered the brain in this
peculiar manner he deemed worthy of note, since it would produce not
only instantaneous death, but an utterly motionless one. Further, from
the position of the bullet-hole and the direction taken by the bullet,
it was manifestly impossible that the shot should have been fired by
the man himself, even if the condition of the hair about the wound did
not completely demonstrate the fact that the shot was fired from a
point some three or four feet distant. Still further, considering the
angle at which the bullet had entered the skull, it was evident that
the deceased must not only have been seated at the time, a fact about
which there could be no dispute, but he must also have been engaged in
some occupation which drew his head forward. For, in order that a ball
should enter the head of a man sitting erect at the angle seen here, of
45 degrees, it would be necessary, not only for the pistol to be held
very low down, but in a peculiar position; while if the head had been
bent forward, as in the act of writing, a man holding a pistol naturally
with the elbow bent, might very easily fire a ball into the brain at the
angle observed.

Upon being questioned in regard to the bodily health of Mr.
Leavenworth, he replied that the deceased appeared to have been in good
condition at the time of his death, but that, not being his attendant
physician, he could not speak conclusively upon the subject without
further examination; and, to the remark of a juryman, observed that he
had not seen pistol or weapon lying upon the floor, or, indeed,